Online Broken Hearts Club

To follow up on yesterday’s news about the survey of the significant technology saturation in teens’ lives, here’s another tidbit.

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The Pew Internet & American Life Project survey, which interviewed 1,100 teenagers and their parents, reported that the percentage of teens who broke up with someone via instant messaging rose from 13 percent to 19 percent in four years.

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Not to say that teenage boyfriend/girlfriend relationships are so very serious, but this reminds me of the Seinfeld episode wherein Elaine takes an incoming phone call while on the line with a friend who is grieving a relative’s recent death — it’s simply a social faux pas ... isn’t it?

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Well, it used to be.

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But that’s where we are. Technology has enabled our lives to be more impersonal, more convenient and, well, more passive aggressive. We can flirt online. We can meet dates, hook-ups and, more frequently nowadays, future spouses. At the same time, more people — especially teens, according to the survey — are breaking up over the phone, e-mail and instant messaging. (For online “breaking up” cards, here ‘ya go. Otherwise, you can use a post-it note.)

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Whether this is a good or bad thing, well, that’s completely subjective to your relationship beliefs, isn’t it? But it’s happening. And it’s happening more often, according to Pew's report.

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(I remember reading somewhere that contemporary wartime “Dear John” letters have caught up with e-mail, IM and cell phone technology, as well ... I don’t remember where I read it. Maybe I’m making it up, actually. Anyway, thinking about it, that’s pretty lousy.)

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For the entire Pew Internet & American Life Project�report, go to http://www.pewinternet.org/PPF/r/162/report_display.asp.�

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DRB

Tags: pew teen internet report followup
Related Tags: technology, online, phone, report, survey, teens

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Comments to Online Broken Hearts Club

1. RE: Online Broken Hearts Club
   danielle :
   September 19, 2005 8:23 AM

   hey my names danielle i got dumped by my bf last month and am truly gutted. i dont know whether i can get over it. i know im being selfish and there are so many other more important things in the world, but all i can think about is him and why he dumped me. i really thought things were going well, why is life so cruel sometimes. my neighbour just died of cancer and, as it was my dad's friend, it ruined him. and there's me thinkin about this. i dont need it - all i want is rickie back, i just wna know what happened.